The present invention relates to a water-in oil emulsion based coating and its applications as internal and external substitute for conventional fat in frozen desserts. It further relates to a method of coating a frozen confectionery product, for example, ice confectionery.
In a coated frozen confectionery product, for example an ice lolly, bar, morsel, cone, cup or cake, the largest portion of the calories in a typical fat-based coating comes from the fat, which may account for some 45-60% by weight of the coating. It would be desirable to substantially reduce the amount of calories in a coated confectionery product by producing a low calorie coating with a reduced fat content.
The difficulties in devising a low calorie coating composition is that it must have similar organoleptic properties to conventional fat-based coatings, in particular good snap, chocolate flavor and unctuous, creamy mouthfeel, suitable functionality, in particular high viscosity and good storage and heat-shock resistance for being able to be processed in a coating operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,392 discloses a process for coating a frozen confectionery product in which the coating composition is calorie reduced in that it is sugar-free, contains aspartame, mannitol and polydextrose as sugar replacer and contains cocoa butter and a vegetable fat.
Japanese Patent 59-59149 discloses there is disclosed a reduced calorie composition for enrobing ice confectionery based on a water-in oil emulsion, in which the emulsifier system is a combination of polyglycerine condensed ricinoleic acid ester as major emulsifier and one of glycerine fatty acid ester, sorbitan fatty acid ester or lecithin as sub-emulsifier.
We have found that it is possible to produce a reduced calorie coating based on a water-in-oil emulsion which has the same texture and flavour properties as required for conventional fat-based coatings and a significantly lower calorie content.